With the Smoke of Partisanship in their Eyes, Are Americans Being Taken for a Ride?

By Randell A. Monaco
January 24, 2011


Corporations who don’t need prior shareholder approval to spend corporate money are about to become the Goliaths of political influence independent of traditional political parties. As corporations begin to surreptitiously take center stage for the 2012 election campaign festivities it’s time to have a look at what this new reality is beginning to look like.

At the outset, let’s not accept out-of-hand the false idea that policies based on what’s good for corporations are good for America. Consider first that a corporate leader who increases profits by slashing his work force is thought to be successful. Well, that’s more or less what has happened in America recently: employment is way down, but profits are hitting new records. Who, exactly, considers this economic success?

Now compare the highly regulated economies in Japan and Germany that did a much better job than the United States at sustaining employment in the face of the 2008 financial crisis.

If revenues are generated through income and sales tax revenues how are the interests of nominally “American” corporations and the interests of the nation, which were never the same, aligned? The reference to “nominally American” corporations should be clarified here. To illustrate, columnist and Nobel Memorial Prize recipient Paul Krugman suggests, General Electric’s fortunes have very little to do with U.S. prosperity. He explains as an example that fewer than half its workers are based in the United States and less than half its revenues come from U.S. operations.

The corporate ability to influence and singularly direct our nation far surpasses the voice of an individual who now shares the Freedom of Speech with these economic powerhouses thanks to the recent Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. Fair Election Commission which seems to have been in step with and strategically enabled over time by the Federalist Society and its membership.

Brook Jarvis noted in a November 2010 article that money really can buy votes! A report from Public Citizen found that, of 74 races in which a seat changed parties, 58 went to the candidate who had received the most money from outside groups empowered by Citizens United. Winning candidates received an average of $764,326 in outside money (not counting candidate or party funds), compared to $273,268 for losing candidates. In fact, some races were far more one-sided. In Illinois, for example, Republican Senate winner Mark Kirk benefited from $8 million more in outside money than his opponent, Alexander Giannoulias, who was targeted by funnels for corporate money such as American Crossroads, Crossoads GPS, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The challenge to understand why our politicians support policies that benefit corporations instead of citizens shouldn’t be as confusing to Americans as it may have been prior to this recent Supreme Court ruling. We don’t really need to keep wondering why big companies get bailed out, or why regulators look the other way at this point, do we?

The problem, as I see it, is that the there is a critical need for an increase in public investment and the real challenge is to overcome a thoroughly indoctrinated public perception that views government spending as a bad thing.

When we look at the aftermath of 2008 it is hard to disagree with Paul Krugman’s conclusion that we’re in a mess because we had a financial crisis - not because American companies have lost their ability to compete with foreign rivals.

The rhetoric of competitiveness for me seems to be the most frightening because of how easily it can be manipulated in the wrong direction for economic policy. Policies that lead to investment that’s actually about creating jobs now while promoting longer-term growth are easily susceptible to interpretations that we’ve been too tough on business, and that what America needs now is corporate tax cuts and across-the-board deregulation. There is no reason to believe that we should trust a market economy to regulate itself again. It is time to learn from our mistakes, don’t you think?

The state of discourse in our nation is pushing us further away from making a serious and much needed investment and spending increase on infrastructure and education. Election cycles in our nation seem to be getting in the way of making sustainable policy decisions that would meaningfully define a vision for our economic possibility. Worse, multi-national corporations and the ideology that brought economic disaster have been handed the keys to the bus with the smoke of partisanship in their eyes, Americans are being taken for a ride.

An End to an Era That Has Not Begun

By Randell A. Monaco, Esq.
January 4, 2011

It has been said, politics is the art of the possible. In these times, we all understand the need to deal with one’s political opposition. However, these days the tone of political opposition is more accurately described as political enemies. The term opposition seems to water down the real carrying on that continues to boil in Washington, our respective state capital’s and for that matter in the social media spaces.

When President Obama was elected many saw this as the beginning of a new era. Sadly most of us have been disappointed for reasons that will be explained. The reality is that President Obama’s election more accurately should have been, and some still hope will be described, as an end to an era of great disappointment.

At this point in the case of President Obama a criticism may be warranted. Put it this way, it’s one thing to make deals to advance your goals; it’s another to open the door to, as Paul Krugman has called it, zombie ideas or zombie economics. In his defense maybe it is unrealistic and not possible for President Obama to get more in the face of Congressional skepticism about our government. Our political system is broken and nothing short of election reform is likely to fix what needs repair first. Election and campaign finance reform is the first step to restoring confidence in our elected government.

Frankly, it seems a waste of time to continue partisan discussions and debate until something is done to fix the real problem that prevents America from recovery economically, socially and to restore the fundamental freedoms we universally were once recognized and praised for in the description, land of the free and home of the brave. I, as do many others, hope that our President will soon stand up to be counted as one of the Brave.

In making these criticisms, we can look at some of the reasons that undermine and justify skepticism about our current elected government. First, Economist and Nobel Laureate, Paul Krugman accurately states that Free-market fundamentalists have been wrong about everything — yet they now dominate the political scene more thoroughly than ever. After runaway banks brought the economy to its knees, we heard GOP conservative and congressional representative Ron Paul, who many consider to be, “father of the Tea Parties” say, “I don’t think we need regulators,” as they begin to take over a key House panel overseeing the Fed?

Now, maybe it wasn’t possible for President Obama to get more in the face of Congressional skepticism about government. But even if that’s true, it only demonstrates the continuing hold of a failed doctrine over our politics. A continuation of the era we had voted to end.

Mr. Krugman has explained that what the right said about why Obamanomics would fail was wrong. For two years we’ve been warned that government borrowing would send interest rates sky-high; in fact, rates have fluctuated with optimism or pessimism about recovery, but stayed consistently low by historical standards. For two years we’ve been warned that inflation, even hyperinflation, was just around the corner; instead, disinflation has continued, with core inflation — which excludes volatile food and energy prices — now at a half-century low.

Notably, Mr. Krugman accurately points out that Free-market fundamentalist have been wrong about everything — yet they now dominate the political scene more thoroughly than ever! The fact is that such failures don’t seem to matter and the people who should have been trying to correct these ideas and failed doctrines have only tried to compromise with them instead. This criticism is especially, though not only, true of the president himself. Some may argue that it is important to live to fight another day but I for one disagree. There are others too who would say, stand up for what is right and let the chips fall.

In fact in today’s Huffington Post, attorney Norman Goldman writes, “The Republicans have moved so far to the right that they keep planting their flag on ever more extreme soil and the Democrats keep moving over there, to be ‘centrist’ and ‘bipartisan.’ The entire political spectrum has moved so far right that I hardly recognize America anymore. The Republicans have called the tune and set the terms of debate for thirty years.”

Personally, to me it seems almost like high school dating. I couldn’t agree more, enough is enough. Someone has to have the guts to stand up and redefine "the center." How that happens in my opinion needs to start with election reform. Our elected government has lost the credibility needed to lead and we are just throwing hard earned money after bad. If the democratic process is to be salvaged then start with campaign finance reform and Fix Congress First. Restore trust in our democracy and then we can return to the partisan discussions to address the needs of America. Put the cart behind the horse.

As Mr. Goldman says, the future of America is at stake, we’ve had enough mimicry and corporatism. It’s time for our elected government to stop the self service and start serving the “people” of our nation.

I’m not willing to give up on President Obama yet, but it’s time to stand and fight with and for the proud and the brave, the people. Corporations are neither. At this point, President Obama needs to wrap his brain around this last thought, the Obama era does not exist because the former lives on. Grow a pair and let’s move on together the days are numbered.